Al-Ghazali

Imam Abdu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE) was a – polymath – philosopher, jurist, and theologian and a Sufi. Author of many books, he is known to have influenced many philosophers including the famous Western philosopher Thomas Aquinas and his book Summa Theologica. He belonged to the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence and to the Asharite school of theology, yet his stand was different from the typical or orthodox Asharite school of thought. He challenged the philosophical views of the Falsafa – group of scholars from the eighth century to the eleventh century like Ibn Sina, Al-Farabi, and others who were influenced by the intellectual tradition of the ancient Greeks – for its anti-Islamic beliefs. Further, he wrote on a wide variety of topics including love, cosmology, jurisprudence, religion, and many others. He is acknowledged as one the most influential Arabian philosopher who as a mystic and a spiritualist was also a realist in his approach to understand the nature of God.